Hullo thur gangsters,

Yeah, yeah, I know, believe me! It’s been a long time since writing, well, don’t worry, I’m not gonna make this super long winded just to make up for malfeasances’ sake.
Work wise, I have been working with the health post on a project called healthy municipalities. This entails talks about hand washing, clean water, water treatment, trash management, and personal hygiene issues. Also there is a cleaning campaign that is starting a few towns down and is going along the main highway hitting several small villages in an effort to pick up trash in problem areas: canals, soccer fields, schools, etc.

I have also been “supervising” the second phase of a sewer project. I am helping with the land surveying and learning about sectioning land using a theodolite. At first I was a bit overwhelmed because the engineer at the municipality gave me a hundred some page report and told me to review it so that I can supervise the project. I felt so flustered. I tried to express to him that I don’t have any experience with this type of project. I just wanted someone to sit down with me and discuss what I would be doing, and take me to the site and give me a walk through/review. This didn’t happen; instead I rode my bike there and met the surveyor and have been helping him since. In Peru, I get the feeling that when people find out you’re an engineer, they expect you to know everything, which can be frustrating because unfortunately I don’t.

Other (non work) wise, I just went up north to Pacasmayo and ran a half marathon, 21 kilometers (13.1 miles). My goal was to do it in less than one hour 45 minutes. Well I had a great run, I got second place and my time was 1:32:56, which I was very happy with! The course was pretty tough, there were quite a few hills, some sandy, some steep pavement, but overall it was quite beautiful. The beginning we ran on the bluffs overlooking the ocean out towards the famous lighthouse. I was running this part with a husky dog that happened to be running the course with us and it reminded me of running back home with my dog Wiley. Although he got in my way a few times, it was a nice nostalgia. Then the course turned back and we ran through the boardwalk with people lining both sides cheering and up to the steepest hill of the course around kilometer 15. The rest was on the road out and back and finishing at the boardwalk under a giant Powerade arch.

Later that night we had our fourth Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament. 32 players, five soles entry. I was on top of my game and made it all the way to the final match. I lost however to a kid from Peru 9 named Ja. He was quite intense and I think his barking after each win intimidated me. I got flogged 4-0, but I still won 40 soles for second place. Yeah, second place was my spot on this day.

I had a great time the night after the marathon. It was great to see people who live on the other side of the country and we all let loose and celebrated being done with the race. We went to a dance club at the end of the night and danced despite having incredibly sore legs and a hot Dartmouth alum flirted with me, which was pretty awesome. Well, the next day I was incredibly hung over. I think it was actually a combo of being sick and hung over; I felt like dog shit and had the shits, two boos.

We went back to Trujillo that day to take an overnight bus back to Lima. I paid for a “guardaequipaje” or bag check at the bus station and came back later that night and my backpack was gone. I was quite upset, I paid to have it checked and it still got stolen. I had my iPod, my medallion from the race, a t-shirt I won for getting second, the race shirt, lots of clothes, expensive sunglasses, Chaco sandals, and various other things of value. Well, we ended up settling out of court, they paid me 200 dollars and gave me 70 dollars in bus services. I probably had over 700 dollars worth of stuff in my bag, but oh well, it’s better than getting robbed on the street and getting nothing back,eh? I ordered a new iPod on ebay, new and improved, and am having it delivered to another kid’s parents who are coming here in August, so that is exciting. My iPod was one of my most cherished items, and I’ve realized is something that gets me through the lows, so this is essential to replace!

At the end of July is Fiestas Patrias, kinda like our independence day except this is like a week long. We get free vacation days, so a bunch of us are going up to the Cordillera Blanca in the department of Ancash. We are meeting in the city of Huaraz, which is international mountain trekking headquarters. Three other Peru 12 gangsters and I are doing the four day “Santa Cruz” trek. Just to give some perspective, in this mountainous region of Peru there are more than 50 peaks of 5700m or higher. In contrast, North America has only three mountains in excess of 5700m (Pico de Orizaba in Mexico, Logan in Canada and Denali in Alaska), and Europe has none. The Cordillera Blanca also has the highest peak in the tropics anywhere in the world, Huascarán at 6768m.

So I am really excited and hopefully will be posting some awesome pics soon.

Ciao y hasta la próxima,
F-grenade